PwC report warns that “governments and businesses can no longer assume that a 2°C warming world is the default scenario”

The PwC Low Carbon Economy Index evaluates the rate of decarbonisation of the global economy that is needed to limit warming to 2°C. This is based on a carbon budget that would stabilise atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations at 450 ppm and give a 50% probability of limiting warming to 2°C.

This report shows that global carbon intensity decreased between 2000 and 2011 by around 0.8%a year. In 2011, carbon intensity decreased by just 0.7%.The global economy now needs tocut carbon intensity by 5.1% every year from now to 2050 to achievethis carbon budget. This requiredrate of decarbonisation has not been seen even in a single year since the mid-20th century whenthese records began.

Keeping to the 2°C carbon budget will requireunprecedented and sustainedreductions over four decades.Governments’ ambitions to limit warming to 2°C appear highly unrealistic.